Monday 2 October 2006 20.34 EDT
First published on Monday 2 October 2006 20.34 EDT

Steve McClaren has taken many courageous decisions during his embryonic England tenure but relegating Wayne Rooney to substitute is unlikely to be one. Rooney's state of mind is of concern to McClaren going into the Euro 2008 qualifying matches against Macedonia and Croatia but any temptation to leave him out all but ended yesterday when Andrew Johnson withdrew through injury.

Johnson damaged a hamstring in the final minute of Everton's 1-1 draw with Manchester City. The Premiership's leading scorer, with six goals since his £8.5m move from Crystal Palace, had been pressing hard for his first competitive England start and it is a measure of his increased status that his absence will be keenly felt by McClaren at a time when his options in attack look increasingly sparse.

"It's a real blow because he has made a massive impact already with Everton this season and I've been hugely impressed by him," he said. "He's got such a great attitude and is a constant threat to any defence. He was certainly knocking very hard on the door for a place in the team."

With Michael Owen and Dean Ashton on the list of long-term absentees, the attack has become a concern for McClaren. Whether he would have been bold enough to use Johnson from the start against Macedonia at Old Trafford on Saturday is a question whose answer may never be made public. One certainty, however, is that McClaren has misgivings not only about Rooney's recent performances but also about whether the Manchester United striker is cut out to play alongside Peter Crouch. Both like to drop deep to collect the ball and are usually at their best, particularly Crouch, when playing slightly behind a sharp, incisive partner.

That is where Johnson could have come in, his burst of scoring elevating him ahead of Jermain Defoe in McClaren's thinking, particularly after the Tottenham striker's ineffective performance in last month's 1-0 win in Macedonia. Defoe scored a penalty in the 2-1 win against Portsmouth on Sunday but there is a conundrum in expecting him to flourish at international level when he is not even a Spurs regular. Rightly or wrongly, his two goals against Andorra are undermined because of the identity of England's opponents and McClaren may feel he has little option but to trust in Rooney and Crouch and ask them to work closely in training, starting in Manchester today.

Another possibility would be to play Rooney behind Crouch and Defoe in a 4-1-3-2 formation. That, however, would mean Frank Lampard being omitted and it seems McClaren wants to remain loyal to the Chelsea midfielder during a difficult period for him at international level.

Instead, Defoe looks to be the odd man out. Rooney appears to have immunity against being dropped. Crouch's 11 goals in 14 England appearances make him one of the most prolific international strikers anywhere and he, too, seems to be accepted now as a first-team fixture. The problem is whether they can gel. Both players are clever enough to learn to adapt but Rooney's perplexing form at club level has made it far more of a concern than McClaren could have expected as he waited for the 20-year-old to complete his two-match ban for grinding his studs into Ricardo Carvalho's groin in England's World Cup quarter- final against Portugal.

Charlton's Darren Bent has been promoted from the under-21 squad to take Johnson's place in the senior party. McClaren described him as "a player with excellent ability and a real goal threat" but the best Bent can realistically expect is a place on the bench as England experiment with a Rooney-Crouch axis.

Macedonia, 51st and 47 places behind England in Fifa's rankings, should be obliging opponents, but Croatia in Zagreb tomorrow week will be the first major test since the World Cup. If McClaren is to maintain his 100% start, he may be reliant on Rooney snapping out of whatever seems to be troubling him.